The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka has directed the Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) to replace long-term maize varieties distributed under Pfumvudza with shorter ones.
Addressing Agritex officers in Mashonaland West province and Zvimba peri-urban farmers at a Pfumvudza demonstration plot near Banket on Thursday, Masuka said:
We need to mobilise and motivate all the farmers to prepare land where they haven’t and where they have, to begin to plant, but to plant very short varieties.
You (Agritex) should withdraw long season varieties of maize and ensure that they are replaced by short-season varieties.
We cannot expect a farmer to have a long term variety of maize and not plant when they have no short-season varieties.
Masuka also implored farmers to plant sunflowers which can be planted late into the season and still produce meaningful yields. He said:
Even if we have short seasons, our farmers will be able to harvest something from the sunflower that they can use to purchase food and other items.
As a Government, we are mobilising the importation of sunflower seed from South Africa and already 2 100 have already arrived and we expect the rest within the next fortnight.
Most parts of the country received proper rains towards Christmas and it is feared that farmers will not be able to realise any meaningful yields from medium and late seed varieties, with the summer season almost halfway.